A cell/smart phone on your kit? The military radios are hardened for a number of reasons, none of which a cell/smart phone would survive. Are radios not available? Is the accessibility to your phone while your are kitted up that important? Why not carry it in a sleeve pocket or pant leg cargo pocket?
Being a gadget whore of the first order while I was in, and then going back over to A-Stan to do fabrication work for team guys in forward locations, this was never something I ever would have considered, nor got a request for. No team guy that I met carried or wanted to carry a phone on the outside of their kit. Some guys might have carried one but it was likely in a protective case of some kind inside an accessory pouch, but I never saw one.
Now then, from a gadget freak/mad scientist's perspective, I would forego the MOLLE strips on the outside of your pouch unless you want to carry pens or a small flash light or knife. That's a lot of wasted time and materials. A phone pouch is a lousy platform to mount items to. If you truly want to carry your phone on the outside of your kit, I would recommend you move it off to one of the sides so as to mitigate the effects of a direct impact from a "belly bounce" as you say, let alone the potential for rounds coming in your general direction. And I would also advise that you not locate that pouch in the area where your mags are carried because it will get in the way at the worst possible time. Looking at that picture of your vest, I can't determine where you carry your mags. Still, where you have it now would subject it to greater wear and tear, which will shorten the lifespan of your pouch's usefulness.
Perhaps you could at least locate it on the sides of the vest, like an inside-the-waist-band holster. That might create a bit of chafing, depending on how snug your vest is, but at least your phone is no longer located at "center mass".
If you are truly intent on carrying your phone on the outside of the kit and that location is the only area of real estate you have to work with, I strongly recommend you add a layer of 1/32" or even 1/16" of HDPE (high density polyethylene) to both the front and back of your pouch. If you have a heavy enough sewing machine, you can stitch the layers of HDPE to the inside of the outer fabric layers. That should provide enough protection against penetration for your pouch to protect your phone. I would then add neoprene or some other high density rubber padding between the HDPE and your inside fabric layer to round out the pouch's impact resistance.
I would also use a fairly robust, abrasive resistant Denier fabric with a silicone coating and then seam seal the seams to improve it's water "resistance". I would also put the pouch opening on the top. Making your pouch in this manner would allow you to include a neck to the pouch, much like a dry bag that you can roll down and keep it air tight. To finish it off, use a small side-release buckle to eliminate the tell-tale noise of Velcro when opening the pouch just like all the other pouches on your vest are designed.
IMHOO
